Home > In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Google and Facebook criticised of amplifying fake news

In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Google and Facebook criticised of amplifying fake news

The social media companies have been accused of not doing enough to control the flow of false information, following the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday.

After faulty information about the events in Las Vegas were circulated and even promoted on both Google and Facebook, both firms said the content was available only temporarily before it was removed. Morevoer, they said they were working to fix the failures that lead to the false information being available on the platforms, the Financial Times reported[1].

Some of the worst failings concerned Google presenting a discussion thread that wrongly identified the shooter in it's "top stories" module, the New York Times reported[2], and Facebook’s Safety Check promoting a page with false information, according to Fast Company[3].

Following these misteps, the calls for Facebook and Google to do a better job at suppressing false information on their platforms have only intensified. While the companies in these cases typically refer to issues relating to algorithms, the Atlantic called[4] on them to act more forcefully: “The machines have shown they are not up to the task of dealing with rare, breaking news events, and it is unlikely that they will be in the near future. More humans must be added to the decision-making process, and the sooner the better.”